On Jul 5, 2:34 pm, John Savage wrote:
It's the season for monsteria deliciosa. I don't have any growing
myself, but do come across the odd windfall on suburban footpaths. :-)

I'm always intrigued by the fruit's apparent absence of seeds, as this
kind of defeats the propagation purpose of fruit as I understand it.

Any ideas?
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

It would seem that a flowering plant that doesn't produce seeds would
be likely to be a failure in the long run but odd things happen in
nature. Apparently this has happened reasonably often through
mutation and humans have often bred such lines as they are easier to
eat without seeds. Does this mean that seedless fruits would have
died out without human intervention? I don't know.

Some like bananas do quite well propagating vegetatively. Could they
do that indefinitely in the wild?

Some rarely have viable seeds or their seeds are rarely seen as we
propagate them from cuttings, roots etc (potatos, strawberries) but in
the right circumstances the seeds will grow.

If you wanted to follow it up search for "parthenocarpy" which is the
technical term.

David